Work

Legal geographies and strategic coupling: an analysis of the medicinal cannabis industry in Colombia

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Global production networks (GPNs) research often treats law as a static institutional backdrop, yet it plays a fundamental role in GPNs’ developmental outcomes. In this paper we bring GPN 1.0 into conversation with legal geography to study law, actors, firms, and regional assets as mutually constitutive; highlighting how their interactions co-produce the economic spaces where strategic coupling and regional development are forged. We thus analyse the emergence and development of Colombia’s medicinal cannabis, legalised in 2016. Our analysis shows how the dynamics between law, strategic coupling, power imbalance and the state produced a geographically uneven industrial development and produced social exclusion.

Source: Regional Studies

DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2026.2726962

Authors: Diana Morales, Tiago Teixeira

Institutions: Umeå University, Newcastle University

Language: English

Topic: Global trade, sustainability, and social impact

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Umeå Universitet